You Aughta Know: Blaze is best remembered for the multiple controversies of its initial E-I-C, Jesse Washington. The drama sparked when rapper Canibus read a review, slated for the Fall 1998 premiere issue, which shitted on his debut album, Can-I-Bus (the mag allowed artists whose LP was trashed to read the review and defend their work). According to Washington's first editor's letter, a drunken Wyclef, who managed Canibus, pulled a gun on Washington at Hit Factory studios and demanded that the piece not run. (The review did not run, and Washington used the alleged incident, which Wyclef has always denied happened, to promote Blaze's "critical, yet fair" album review policy.) Later that same year, Washington pissed off Bad Boy producer and rapper Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie when a "Deez Cuts" singles review page printed a photo of him, revealing him as The Madd Rapper. Though most industry heads knew The Madd Rapper's "secret identity," D-Dot felt exposed and expressed displeasure by assaulting the E-I-C (the two settled their dispute out of court). Finally, Washington wrote a scathing indictment of censorship at Blaze/VIBE because he wasn't allowed to publish an editorial applauding the acquittal of Montoun Hart, the confessed accomplice in the torture, robbery, and murder of Jonathan Levin, son of Time Warner CEO Gerald M. Levin (the former boss of VIBE Ventures boss Bob Miller). To say he went out in a less than glorious blaze is putting it mildly.
Blaze is best remembered for the multiple controversies of its initial E-I-C, Jesse Washington. The drama sparked when rapper Canibus read a review, slated for the Fall 1998 premiere issue, which shitted on his debut album, Can-I-Bus (the mag allowed artists whose LP was trashed to read the review and defend their work). According to Washington's first editor's letter, a drunken Wyclef, who managed Canibus, pulled a gun on Washington at Hit Factory studios and demanded that the piece not run. (The review did not run, and Washington used the alleged incident, which Wyclef has always denied happened, to promote Blaze's "critical, yet fair" album review policy.) Later that same year, Washington pissed off Bad Boy producer and rapper Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie when a "Deez Cuts" singles review page printed a photo of him, revealing him as The Madd Rapper. Though most industry heads knew The Madd Rapper's "secret identity," D-Dot felt exposed and expressed displeasure by assaulting the E-I-C (the two settled their dispute out of court). Finally, Washington wrote a scathing indictment of censorship at Blaze/VIBE because he wasn't allowed to publish an editorial applauding the acquittal of Montoun Hart, the confessed accomplice in the torture, robbery, and murder of Jonathan Levin, son of Time Warner CEO Gerald M. Levin (the former boss of VIBE Ventures boss Bob Miller). To say he went out in a less than glorious blaze is putting it mildly.
Blaze is best remembered for the multiple controversies of its initial E-I-C, Jesse Washington. The drama sparked when rapper Canibus read a review, slated for the Fall 1998 premiere issue, which shitted on his debut album, Can-I-Bus (the mag allowed artists whose LP was trashed to read the review and defend their work). According to Washington's first editor's letter, a drunken Wyclef, who managed Canibus, pulled a gun on Washington at Hit Factory studios and demanded that the piece not run. (The review did not run, and Washington used the alleged incident, which Wyclef has always denied happened, to promote Blaze's "critical, yet fair" album review policy.) Later that same year, Washington pissed off Bad Boy producer and rapper Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie when a "Deez Cuts" singles review page printed a photo of him, revealing him as The Madd Rapper. Though most industry heads knew The Madd Rapper's "secret identity," D-Dot felt exposed and expressed displeasure by assaulting the E-I-C (the two settled their dispute out of court). Finally, Washington wrote a scathing indictment of censorship at Blaze/VIBE because he wasn't allowed to publish an editorial applauding the acquittal of Montoun Hart, the confessed accomplice in the torture, robbery, and murder of Jonathan Levin, son of Time Warner CEO Gerald M. Levin (the former boss of VIBE Ventures boss Bob Miller). To say he went out in a less than glorious blaze is putting it mildly.

LEGACYThough many talented people worked for Blaze (Washington, Mimi Valdes, Darrell Dawsey, Hyun Kim, Dao-Yi Chow, OJ Lima, and Complex E-I-C Noah Callahan-Bever), the magazine is best remembered for rappers causing bodily harm to Washington (who turned his experiences into a novel, Black Will Shoot).

RATINGS Blaze was onto something as it was the first to champion Southern hip-hop and also one of the first widely distributed hip-hop mags to offer snark-even if most of the jokes fell flat.